Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“What started as a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery became an unconditional surrender Thursday. Netflix had a deal in place for a couple of months, but Paramount, under the direction of MAGA heir David Ellison, made a hostile takeover bid, and this week upped its offer from $30 to $31 a share for all of WBD, including its cable channels. The total purchase comes to $111 billion, and on Thursday the WBD board pronounced the offer superior to Netflix’s, giving the streamer four days to match it. Netflix, whose CEO was at the White House on Thursday (what was he told?), barely needed an hour, dropping its effort. So what many see as a worst-case scenario is realized: the Ellison family wresting control of two major movie studios, CBS, HBO, CNN, and secondarily TikTok. There are certainly echoes of media-political consolidation as we see in dictatorships the world over.” (02/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/27/states-can-block-paramount-warner-deal/